1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a padlock mount having portions which can be locked together to lock together the structures to which they are attached.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A common means to prevent doors and like structures from swinging or sliding apart is a padlock mount having a pair of shackle receivers attachable to such structures, with a padlock shackle fitted into complemental shackle openings in the receivers to lock them together.
The shackle openings have to be made of a generous size to accommodate the shackles of various sizes of padlocks, and also to enable the user to manipulate the U-shape shackle through the openings. If the doors are swinging doors and the door handles are pulled forcibly outwardly, the generous size shackle openings undesirably permit the receivers to be separated a significant distance. This is because the margins defining the shackle openings ride away from the bight of the shackle and onto the shackle legs. The degree of receiver separation is a function of the clearances between these edge margins and the bight of the shackle. If the clearances are large enough the receivers can be separated a distance approximating the spacing between the shackle legs. Such a gap is often sufficient to enable unauthorized persons to insert cutting tools and the like to cut the shackle, or to insert pry bars and develop a destructive leverage. It also would enable a tool to be inserted for hammering against the upper surface of the lock body to forcibly dislodge the shackle.
Reducing the shackle/shackle opening tolerance would reduce the degree of separation of the shackle receivers, but this would also mean that only one size of padlock could be accommodated. This undesirably limits the marketability of a padlock mount because the mount would have to be stocked in several sizes for various sizes of padlocks.
Of course, higher grade steel and heavier cross sections could be used for the various components of the lock and padlock mount, but this would add considerable expense to the locking system, and even such strengthened components are vulnerable to modern bolt cutters and the like.
The mount could also be provided with special protective covers, or be formed in some way that a portion would overlie and cover any gap between the receivers, but such measures would introduce a complexity in fabrication that would undesirably boost the cost of such a mount.
Whatever solution is devised, the resulting mount should also be capable of locking together doors and other structures which open by swinging or by sliding movement in a horizontal or a vertical direction, and it should be capable of receiving a padlock shackle from either the left or the right side. Desirably, it also should be capable of use in either an abutment or a mortise style installation.